5 Tips for Moms to Keep Their Children Engaged While Working From Home
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Working from home with kids around is both a blessing and a hindrance. It’s great being around your kids for more time during the day as you work from home. However, there are times where you really need to focus on a project without any distractions. If you have been struggling on ways to keep your children busy as you work from home, you’ll want to check out these 5 tips for moms below.
Tips for Moms
Make an Activity Station
One of the best ways to keep your child busy as you're working is to have them partake in activities. This may involve a small amount of prep time beforehand, but once you realize how well it works, you'll be glad that you did it.
You can include a wide range of things for kids to do within this activity station. Having them do puzzles is an awesome idea that also helps to stimulate them cognitively. It may also be fun to include things like playdough or other art supplies to play with and be engaged.
Coloring Books
Kids love coloring books. If you find the ones that have a lot of pages and different designs, you can be sure that they'll be entertained for hours.
Provide them with all the colors they need, and you can leave them to it. Keeping a variety of different coloring books is crucial for this tip. It will ensure that there’s always something new for your child to look at and color.
Also, be sure that you find coloring books that aren’t too easy. When there’s a challenge, kids are more likely to concentrate for longer in order to complete it.
Get Them a New Educational Toy
Another idea is to get them new toys on a regular basis, but not just any toy. Make sure they are educational games that are specifically geared towards their cognitive development.
One great idea for getting new toys on the cheap in to participate in toy swaps with other mothers so that you're not always breaking the bank buying new ones. For great educational toy ideas check out doodlebuckets.
Play Dates
If you need to spend a few hours on a project that requires your complete attention, it may be a good idea to organize something with a fellow mom. You could set a day aside where your child goes to play at a friend’s house for a few hours.
This is a fantastic way to give your work complete focus. Your child will also be having a lot of fun with their friend! Alternatively, if you have multiple children, you could set up a game for them to play together. This is a great way to keep them occupied while you're trying to get work done.
If you’re having a hard time scheduling play dates with other moms, the other option could be to hire someone to take care of your child for a few hours a day. They could play games and keep your child busy.
Tasks
Children love to be involved with what their parents are doing. While this is a great way to spend quality time together, it may start to become a little unproductive. Therefore, giving your child small tasks for them to complete that are related to your work could keep them busy for a little while.
It doesn’t need to be something that actually has a real effect on the work that you’re doing. However, you could ask them for their input on certain things or have them create a plan of action. They’ll go and be busy for some time before returning and being given the next job to do.
Naps
Be sure not to nap at the same time that your child does. Your child’s nap times are one of the best times for you to focus on getting work done. So, don’t make the mistake of napping along with them.
If you have set nap times for your child, you can schedule your work that requires extra focus for those times. This may be a little difficult, so sometimes, you may just have to play it by ear and be ready to start working as soon as your child starts napping.
Conclusion
So, those were 5 tips to help you get more work done while working from home with children. Sometimes, it’s fun to get your children involved with your work as it can make them feel like they’re contributing in some way.
However, it’s not something that you can do all the time. For those times where you can’t afford to divide your attention, be sure to use the tips mentioned above. Not only will these ideas ensure that you can focus on work, but they will also give children some fun activities to do throughout the day.
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